Well, nobody entered my contest to receive a Gmail account by today’s 8 a.m. EDT deadline. So, I’ll extend the contest. You now have up until Wednesday at 8 a.m. EDT to submit your essay. Refer to the ***previous entry|http://prwdot.org/?p=archives/001852*** if you need the full details.

I realize that many of my regular blog readers already have Gmail accounts, so I can understand that you’re not interested. And perhaps some people have no idea what Gmail is. For those people, here’s a quick run-down:

* ***Gmail|https://gmail.google.com/*** is a free, web-based email service which is currently in the testing stages. It is provided by ***Google|http://www.google.com/***, and has many groundbreaking features such as 1000 megabytes of email storage space, built-in searching, a fast, minimalistic interface, unobtrusive context-sensitive advertisements, and automatic grouping of email “conversations”.
* There is currently no way to directly “sign up” for a Gmail account. Google initially processed requests to sign up as a tester, but did not immediately grant those requests. Google also provided Gmail accounts to many users of their ***Blogger|http://www.blogger.com/*** service. There is now a growing number of testers, who occasionally receive “invitations” to give out to others. I received my Gmail account by way of an invitation, and I have been granted one such invitation to give out.
* If your primary email address ends in “@yahoo.com” or “@hotmail.com”, or you are not happy with your current email provider, you are a prime candidate for a Gmail account.
* If you would like to find out more about Gmail, visit the ***Gmail page|https://gmail.google.com/***.